You Didn't Swim This Far To Quit (The Friday Ficks S6 E6)

Last month, a soaked and shivering coyote hauled itself onto the rocky shores of Alcatraz after a one mile swim through the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay.

No bridge. No boat. Just instinct - and the will to survive.

By the time it reached dry land, experts believe it had burned through nearly all its body heat and energy reserves, arriving on a 22-acre island neither designed nor envisioned for predators like it.

It was the first coyote documented on Alcatraz since 1972. And the question wasn’t “how did it get there?”

It was “what happens now?”

A few weeks later, visitors spotted a healthy, well-fed coyote patrolling the island’s parade grounds. Fewer nesting birds. More feathers on the ground. A robustly fuller frame. What looked like a desperate miscalculation turned out to be adaptation unfolding in real time.

Resilience isn’t about avoiding cold water.

Fortitude isn’t about knowing the outcome in advance.

Survival instincts don’t show up when conditions are kind - they activate when you’re exhausted, unsure, and far from familiar ground.

Like that coyote, many of us arrive at new chapters depleted. A leadership role we didn’t fully choose. A career shift. A season of loss, change or reinvention.

The island wasn’t built for us. The rules are unclear. The swim took nearly everything we had.

But resilience asks a better question: What’s here that I can use?

Fortitude answers: Stay. Observe. Adapt.

Survival instincts remind us: You already made the crossing.

So this week, if you feel stranded on your own version of Alcatraz, remember the coyote. You didn’t arrive by accident. And you’re more capable than you think - especially when necessity sharpens your senses.

Sometimes survival is the strength.

Own the day. Own the weekend.

Carl